She never felt sorry for herself, and that was something I decided I admired most in people.

But I also hoped that [she] had chosen California because she thought that was her true home, the place where she really belonged, where it was always warm and you could dance in the rain, pick grapes right off the vines, and sleep outside at night under the stars.

But no matter how much planning you do, one tiny miscalculation, one moment of distraction, can end it all in an instant.

The best time to tell your story is when you have to tell your story. When it's not really a choice. But then, when you get that first, messy, complicated version down, you have to read it over and be very tough on yourself and ask, 'Well what's the story here?' If you're lucky enough to have someone you trust looking over your shoulder, he or she can help you if [you] lack perspective on your own story.

Once you'd resolved to go, there was nothing to it at all.

It was good work, the kind of work that let you sleep soundly at night and, when you awoke, look forward to the day.

Sometimes something catastrophic can occur in a split second that changes a person's life forever; other times one minor incident can lead to another and then another and another, eventually setting off just as big a change in a body's life.